On Tuesday, 4th of October, the U19 Girls’ Volleyball squad competed on the QUESS tournament organised and hosted by Qatar Academy Doha. The young squad did well, and much enjoyed competing. Despite losing all 4 matches, the girls showed improvement as they recovered from the initial anxiety of the first match. The tournament was played as a round-robin, first set to 25 points (win by two or, first to 30 points). Here are the results:

Doha College v SEK Qatar 25-5

SEK Qatar v Al Khor International School 26-28

SEK Qatar v Qatar Academy Doha 14-25

SEK Qatar v Park House 13-25

Congratulations to runner-up Park House English School, and to Doha College for the first place. Well done to all!

Squad: Adriana Abella, Isabel Pérez, Isabella A. Jiménez, Claudia Montalvo, Gabriela de la Cuesta, Salma El-Bechouti, Emilia Montalvo, Katerina Darby, Rafaella Becerra, Victoria Pérez.

On Tuesday, 22nd of March, ten pupils, accompanied by Ms. Paula Rego, participated on a U10 boys’ football tournament organised and hosted by Aspire Academy. This was the second year running that SEK Qatar was invited to participate on this youth tournament. Pupils had lots of fun, and showed great fair-play throughout.

Last weekend, 18th and 19th of March, SEK International School Qatar Junior Masters Champions of Qatar travelled to the city of Dubai to compete in the Volkswagen Junior Masters Middles East Final. Accompanied by Physical Education Teachers Ms. Paula Rego and Mr. Eduardo Cary, the squad did well winning some matches, losing some other.

Please, visit the following link for the full list of matches’ results: http://vwjuniormasters-me-rsportz.com/volkswagen-middle-east-finals-fixtures-and-results/

Squad: Adrián García, Alejandro Tebar, Daniel García, Ignacio Montesinos, Jaime Pombo, John Elsonbaty, Majd Saed, Mario Salvador, Nicolas Montesinos, Oriol Cano, Riordan Jewell-MacGregor.

Well done, team! Great effort, and great achievement!

On Wednesday, 16th of March, S.E.K. Qatar and Doha College West Bay (DCWB), organised their first friendly tournament of football between children attending extra-curricular clubs at both schools. The neighbouring schools in Al Farouq Street, Doha, nearly postponed the tournament due to the rain. However, the weather was favourable in the afternoon, and the fixtures went ahead. A group of 35 children accompanied by Ms. Dalila Rodrigues, Ms. Paula Rego, and Grade 5 pupil Beausoleil Douglas walked to DCWB to meet Mr. John Tapster and his squad. For an hour and twenty minutes, 7-a-side football matches were played, between mixed gender teams.

This was a great collaborative opportunity for both schools which, teach different curriculums. SEK Qatar teaches the International Baccalaureate Curriculum, and DCWB the National Curriculum (England, Wales and Northern Ireland). In collaboration with Mr. Tapster, SEK Qatar’s Physical Education Team will work to organise further friendly events.

On Friday, the 19th, a squad of 11 players competed in the Volkswagen Junior Masters Middle East tournament. This was the second year SEK Qatar participated in the event, promoted by Ms. Paula Rego, who also selected the players to represent the school on this competition of 9-a-side football. The event took place at Al-Markhyia Sports Club between 8:45 and 15:00.

On the Group stage draw, SEK integrated the Group A. Group A: Qatar Foundation – Rec Team; Dutch School; SFQ; SEK Qatar. Group B: Qatar Foundation – ECCH Team; German School; Future IFA; Newton School Futsal Academy.

Each match was ten minutes long. The team had a fantastic performance throughout the tournament, winning all the matches. First match with 9 goals to 1. Second match 1-0; Third match 8-1; Fourth 5-0. On the semi-final, the team won 7-0. And, the final with another impressive score of 5 goals to nil.

The best player was Daniel García.

Squad: Adrián García, Alejandro Tebar, Daniel García, Ignacio Montesinos, Jaime Pombo, John Elsonbaty, Majd Saed, Mario Salvador, Nicolas Montesinos, Oriol Cano, Riordan Jewell-MacGregor.

Physical Education Teachers: Ms. Paula Rego, Mr. Eduardo Cary.

The P.E. Teachers would like to say a big thank you for the fantastic support they received from all the players’ parents, who also spent the whole day at the event supporting their children on this great competition. Well done to all. The next competition will take place in Dubai (United Arab Emirates) on the weekend of 18th-19th of March. Best of luck!

Note: Qatar’s newspaper Gulf Times published an article about this on the 24th of February, with the title “School team wins Qatar leg of Volkswagen Tournament”. To read the article use the following link: http://www.gulf-times.com/story/481328/School-team-wins-Qatar-leg-of-Volkswagen-Tournamen

Wednesday, 4th of March was a day for QUESS Rugby. Doha Collage (DC) hosted and organised both U12 and U13 Boys’ Touch Rugby tournaments. The SEK team of Tag and Touch Rugby travelled to DC to participate in the only annual QUESS rugby event for U12 Boys’ Touch Rugby.

On the first game SEK faced DC. SEK boys showed some initial apprehension as this was their debut in a rugby competition. However, they responded really well to the opposition, and improved their performance on the second half of game. DC managed to score two tries, signing off with a win of 2-0 over SEK.

On the second game SEK managed to show their ability both at team-level and individual-level. With the boys clearly more reassured of their skills and ability, SEK managed to score four tries against the side of Sherborne International School Qatar to win 4-0. Tries were scored by: Mark Elsonbaty, Daniel García, Adrián García, Jamie Pombo.

Only three international schools took part on the QUESS U12 Touch Rugby Tournament 2014-2015. Results: DC won both their games, winning the champions’ trophy; SEK Qatar were Runners Up; Sherborne Qatar finished in 3rd place.

Keep practicing Rugby! Go Team!

U12 Boys’ Touch Rugby squad: Adrián García; Alejandro Tebar; Daniel García; Héctor Murillo Vañó; Jaime Pombo Rubio (captain); João Aleixo; John Elsonbaty; Marcos Tapia Salguero; Mario El Bechouti Salvador; Mark Elsonbaty.

Coach: Ms. Dalila Rodrigues.

Wednesday, 18th of February marked Qatar United English Speaking Schools (QUESS) U13 Girls’ Football Tournament organised and hosted by Al Khor International School (AKIS). Ten international schools participated on the event.

Pool A: Al Khor International School (AKIS); Compass International School (CIS); Dukhan English School (DES); Doha College (DC); Qatar International School (QIS).

Pool B: International School of London Qatar (ISLQ); SEK International School Qatar (SEK); Sherborne Qatar; Qatar Academy (QA); Park House English School (PHES).

On the group stage: SEK drew their first 7-a-side match against ISLQ without scoring. On our second match, SEK beat Sherborne with a great goal from Salma Elbechouti. The third match was also won against PH, with one goal from Miriam Gutierrez. On the fourth match, despite the great competitiveness and skills shown from both sides, SEK drew nil-nil with QA. With two wins and two draws SEK finished second on Pool B which, was topped by QA.

On the semi-finals, QIS played QA, and SEK played CIS. After regular time and extra time, neither SEK nor CIS had scored a goal. And so, the result had to be decided on penalties. Miriam Gutierrez defended CIS first penalty. SEK Salma scored the first goal. Both CIS and SEK missed their second penalty kick. As Miriam defended CIS third penalty, the final score was signed by Katerina Darby with a successful third penalty kick, closing the semi-final result with 2 goals to SEK, and nil goals to CIS.

SEK got to the final, and played against QIS. During regular time, SEK showed superiority but, did not manage to score any of the great opportunities created against opposition. The match went into extra time, and later decided on penalties. Great performances by both goal keepers saw the match resolved after 4 penalties from each team, with SEK GK Miriam Gutierrez scoring the only goal which, decided the Championship’s Winner.

Congratulations to all SEK female football team! The U13 Girls’ Football won the first QUESS trophy for SEK International School Qatar. Go Team!

U13 Girls’ Football squad: Amanda Horn; Claudia Morrondo; Katerina Darby; Gabriela de la Cuesta; Salma Elbechouti; Emilia Montalvo; Claudia Montalvo; Miriam Gutierrez de la Flor; Valentina Schell; Victoria Pérez.

Coaches: Ms. Dalila Rodrigues, Ms. Paula Rego.

Matches’ results: ISLQ 0-0 SEK; SEK 1-0 Sherborne; SEK 1-0 PHES; SEK 0-0 QA; Semi-final: SEK 2-0 CIS; Final: SEK 1-0 QIS.